Mass Effect 2 Discussion

[CoM_Solaufein]

Discuss

[Maria Caliban]

I hope I stop hearing about how the asari are all too-perfect Mary Sue space elves.

 

Anyone have favorite lines, yet? Samara: It is deplorable to force living creatures to fight for entertainment. After we have finished your mission, I may return here to teach the krogan the value of compassion. I'm going to need a lot of bullets.

 

I played almost full paragon last time, but renegade feels far more reasonable this time. Interrupts seem most annoying when you don't want to use them. For example, there's an interrogation scene that lasts forever if you don't use the renegade interrupts and start smacking the dude.

Edited January 28, 2010 by Maria Caliban

[Calax]

I just rescued the almighty turian. It was interesting, and I'm liking the different direction they took on the characters. Like maria said, the interrupts are annoying and often I've found that the game seems to just sit there and wait for you to do the interrupt, as if saying "HEY! HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY! I'M DOWN HERE!" Even if you earn paragon/renegade points for it.

 

Heck the interrupts actually do good things, like slow down opponents, or remove one or two, but I really wanna be a paragon, but the renegade interrupts help more, go figure.

[GreasyDogMeat]

I just rescued the almighty turian. It was interesting, and I'm liking the different direction they took on the characters. Like maria said, the interrupts are annoying and often I've found that the game seems to just sit there and wait for you to do the interrupt, as if saying "HEY! HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY! I'M DOWN HERE!" Even if you earn paragon/renegade points for it.

 

Heck the interrupts actually do good things, like slow down opponents, or remove one or two, but I really wanna be a paragon, but the renegade interrupts help more, go figure.

I tried the Renegade interrupt with 'the turian' and I didn't earn Renegade points for it. I just did it to try it, then reloaded and continued on my Paragon path, but I wish that I had done it because it changed the outcome of the confrontation.

Garrus ended up getting shot to heck. He didn't die but now he's horribly scarred.

 

[Enoch]

I played almost full paragon last time, but renegade feels far more reasonable this time.

Yeah, I had the same impression. Much less of a "being a jerk for no reason" feel.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Arrggg... Still trying to fix the loading times.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Just took Garrus & Tali to the Citadel.

 

Garrus: Do you ever miss those conversations we would have on the elevators?

Tali: NO! This conversation is over. I have a shotgun.

Garrus: Uh, maybe we'll talk later.

Edited January 29, 2010 by GreasyDogMeat

[jaguars4ever]

Just took Garrus & Tali to the Citadel.

 

Garrus: Do you ever miss those conversations we would have on the elevators?

Tali: NO! This conversation is over. I have a shotgun.

Garrus: Uh, maybe we'll talk later.

Where in the Citadel do they say that? Right now, I'm pretty much restricted some seedy wards section... Also, where do you pick up Tali? I met her once early on at Freedom's Pass or whatever, and now I've picked up C0ckney Thug,, Boobie Lady, Angry Black Dude, 'ol buddy Garrus, & Psycho Chick.

[thepixiesrock]

Where all the white woman at?

[thepixiesrock]

I mean weapons. Where do I get new weapons? Are there just like, no new weapons or soemthing?

[Oner]

Just took Garrus & Tali to the Citadel.

 

Garrus: Do you ever miss those conversations we would have on the elevators?

Tali: NO! This conversation is over. I have a shotgun.

Garrus: Uh, maybe we'll talk later.

What kind of conversations did those two have?

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I mean weapons. Where do I get new weapons? Are there just like, no new weapons or soemthing?

 

There's a locker on the ship with all your weapons, you just need to go there and choose what you want to have equipped.

[Pop]

No I think he means where are the weapons out there in the world. There's not a lot of choice for what you carry outside of heavy weapons - depending on what order you choose your missions, you could end up going through 80% or so of the game with the weapons you started out with. And if you're not observant, you could end the game with what you started out with.

 

I don't mind it, actually. I was a little annoyed that upgrading the heavy pistol involved cutting the ammo pool by over 50%, but this system is actually far preferable to the largely superfluous system of ME1.

[zazei]

Has anyone managed to do a character with almost no renegade points at all? I still managed to get 1/5 or more of the renegade bar filled on my paragon character and that was while waiting for the lengthy interrupts to pass. The story just seems made for a renegade character in many ways.

 

I also noticed a lot of the renegade choices are really the same stuff you would have been doing as a paragon in Mass effect but in a harsh way. In the first game renegade came down as xenophobic or just plain out of control. Here I often got the impression a renegade is just someone that cares about the people in the galaxy but use harsh means and sometimes bully people into doing what is good for them instead of bullying people into doing whats good for you.

Edited January 29, 2010 by zazei

[~Di]

Backing up a bit... is it true that there isn't a "no helmet" option??? Argghhhhhh....

[zazei]

Backing up a bit... is it true that there isn't a "no helmet" option??? Argghhhhhh....

 

You can choose not to wear a helmet but you lose one armor bonus if you do. It's no big deal though. Most of the stuff the helmets gives are things like 5% health or the like. Most of the time I personally never even show myself once the shield fails since health can go down very quickly and it's annoying to reload.

[Purkake]

Cover-based combat without a helmet sounds like a really bad idea.

[Pop]

Correction - there are no "armor bonuses" in ME2. The helmet (open- or closed-face) adds 5% to your total health, which isn't a whole lot, all things considered. You can easily do without. I usually ran with the visor, which adds 10% damage to headshots.

[GreasyDogMeat]

You can choose not to wear a helmet but you lose one armor bonus if you do. It's no big deal though. Most of the stuff the helmets gives are things like 5% health or the like. Most of the time I personally never even show myself once the shield fails since health can go down very quickly and it's annoying to reload.

I found a good compromise. Some sort of headphone armor that looks pretty cool, shows the face and gives a bonus (to accuracy I think).

 

Where in the Citadel do they say that? Right now, I'm pretty much restricted some seedy wards section... Also, where do you pick up Tali? I met her once early on at Freedom's Pass or whatever, and now I've picked up C0ckney Thug,, Boobie Lady, Angry Black Dude, 'ol buddy Garrus, & Psycho Chick.

As far as I know that seedy section of the wards is the only place in the Citadel you can visit. I got the dialogue when I was walking from one level to another on the stairs. Probably what made Garrus think of elevators.

 

As for Tali, you eventually have to find her as part of the main story... so don't worry about missing her, its impossible. You find your buddies in waves. So once you find all of this first group you will be given a new group to find.

Edited January 29, 2010 by GreasyDogMeat

[Pop]

Has anyone managed to do a character with almost no renegade points at all? I still managed to get 1/5 or more of the renegade bar filled on my paragon character and that was while waiting for the lengthy interrupts to pass. The story just seems made for a renegade character in many ways.

Considering that they eliminated speech skills and made alignment scores the effective "skill level" for alignment-based dialogue choices, it makes sense that throughout the game's dialogue you accumulate residual alignment points, usually to the tune of 2-4 points per conversation. Your class skill then multiplies your score further - A level 4 adept / soldier / whatever gets 50% more alignment points than not. It doesn't really matter anyway, since alignment is not Manichean in Mass Effect.

 

I also noticed a lot of the renegade choices are really the same stuff you would have been doing as a paragon in Mass effect but in a harsh way. In the first game renegade came down as xenophobic or just plain out of control. Here I often got the impression a renegade is just someone that cares about the people in the galaxy but use harsh means and sometimes bully people into doing what is good for them instead of bullying people into doing whats good for you.

I prefer it that way, really. If games don't give us the opportunity to be villains, they have to at least make the low path seem on some level close in efficacy to the high road. ME1 failed in this regard, as do the vast majority of games - proverbs about honey and vinegar apply. By not making being a renegade completely counterproductive to your stated goals (and indeed, removing many of the aspects of RPGs that made being a nice guy so much better, namely l00t), the low road becomes something resembling a choice.

Edited January 29, 2010 by Pop

[Jaesun]

ya know, I'm now at a point I actually want to re-start, in that I finally understand the combat mechanics (de-buffing). One question, can you ignore ... Smoking Man's request to talk to you until you want to talk to him? I.E. finish up all quests you want... THEN go to the conference room and talk to him?

 

I also want to bring Liara on when the uh.... Prothien reveal is shown. I'm hoping she might have a line or two about that?

 

Garrus: Do you ever miss those conversations we would have on the elevators?

Tali: NO! This conversation is over. I have a shotgun.

Garrus: Uh, maybe we'll talk later.

 

[Purkake]

You can choose not to wear a helmet but you lose one armor bonus if you do. It's no big deal though. Most of the stuff the helmets gives are things like 5% health or the like. Most of the time I personally never even show myself once the shield fails since health can go down very quickly and it's annoying to reload.

I found a good compromise. Some sort of headphone armor that looks pretty cool, shows the face and gives a bonus (to accuracy I think).

Reminds me of all the ridiculous crap you could strap to your head in KOTOR II.

Edited January 29, 2010 by Purkake

[Pop]

ya know, I'm now at a point I actually want to re-start, in that I finally understand the combat mechanics (de-buffing). One question, can you ignore ... Smoking Man's request to talk to you until you want to talk to him? I.E. finish up all quests you want... THEN go to the conference room and talk to him?

I don't believe so. If you try and use the Galaxy Map Joker tells you that you can't.

[zazei]

I prefer it that way, really. If games don't give us the opportunity to be villains, they have to at least make the low path seem on some level close in efficacy to the high road. ME1 failed in this regard, as do the vast majority of games - proverbs about honey and vinegar apply. By not making being a renegade completely counterproductive to your stated goals (and indeed, removing many of the aspects of RPGs that made being a nice guy so much better, namely l00t), the low road becomes something resembling a choice.

 

I prefer it this way as well. First Bioware game that never made me feel silly while playing the low path as you call it. Or well there was this one time but small things can be forgiven. At least I didn't find a single beggar to bully for credits and that got to be a major improvement. I never really understood why someone would go through the trouble to get so few credits when it most likely can't even pay for 1/100 of their daily expenses.

Edited January 29, 2010 by zazei

[jaguars4ever]

Backing up a bit... is it true that there isn't a "no helmet" option??? Argghhhhhh....

 

You can choose not to wear a helmet but you lose one armor bonus if you do. It's no big deal though. Most of the stuff the helmets gives are things like 5% health or the like. Most of the time I personally never even show myself once the shield fails since health can go down very quickly and it's annoying to reload.

Actually ~Di's right to fear. You can only customize normal armours. For the DLC armours (Collector Armour, Inferno Armour, Blood Dragon Armour, Terminus Armour), you're pretty much stuck with as is...helmet and all.

 

On the bright side, LEDs on your helmet light up every time you speak Transformers style, and you also sound like you're speaking through a synthesizer.